#101: Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma

The Ex-Worker

On November 6, 2023, several hundred people showed up at the Port of Tacoma in Washington State to block access to a shipping vessel that was scheduled to deliver equipment to the Israeli military. This episode shares an account and analysis of the action published on November 10th as “Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma: Reflections from the Salish Sea.” Participants review the history of port blockades in the Puget Sound, share their experience at the protest, and seek to offer inspiration for continued transoceanic solidarity. {November 23, 2023}

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• Table of Contents:
  • Introduction {0:36}
  • Escalating Resistance {1:41}
  • Drawing on Decades of Port Blockades {4:03}
  • Gathering at the Port {7:23}
  • Evaluation {11:27}
  • Outro/PSA {17:36}

• This episode offers an audio version of Shutting Down the Port of Tacoma: Reflections from the Salish Sea.

• To read more about this action, see the reportback “The Boat That Wasn’t Blocked” on Puget Sound Anarchists.

• For background on a previous blockade action in the region, check out Episode 61 on The Olympia Train Blockade of 2017.

• The recent history of port shutdowns in the Northwest includes the Port Militarization Resistance movement blockades of the ports of Olympia and Tacoma to protest against the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2006–2009; coordination between Occupy/Decolonize Seattle ILWU port workers in Longview that shut down the Port of Seattle among other ports in 2011–12; the Block the Boat action in 2014; the “Shell No” lockdown in 2015, Shell No. and the Block the Boat delay of an Israeli-operated ship for weeks in 2021.

• Our coverage of the war in Palestine so far includes “Strategizing for Palestinian Solidarity: Expanding the Toolkit From Demands to Direct Action” - also available as Episode 99 of the Ex-Worker; “From the Galilee to Gaza—A Voice From Palestine” – also available as Episode 98 – and ““A Nuclear Superpower and a Dispossessed People”: An Anarchist from Jaffa on the Escalation in Palestine and Israeli Repression”. For further background, see “A Coup d’État in Israel? The Bitter Harvest of Colonialism” (March 27, 2023) – also available as Episode 92 of the Ex-Worker - “The Revolt in Haifa: An Eyewitness Report” (2021), and “Contemporary Israeli Anarchism: A History” (2013).

• For classic strategic analysis, you can also read more about why we don’t make demands and what we mean by direct action.